Comments for Bill Moyers: The "Misery Index." and the Middle Class »
Posted By TechnologyExpert 1 year, 4 months ago in NewsWorking Americans, and that's most people, are experiencing the "big squeeze." In fact, they're trying to survive one of the most profound social and economic changes in our history. The middle class is disappearing, facing a decline in standards of living. So you'd hope that the Democrats in Denver next week and the Republicans in St. Paul the following week would confront this crisis head on and not just serenade struggling families with a chorus of sympathetic but meaningless sound bites.
As wages stagnate, prices are soaring. Economists call this pain the "misery index." It's a combination of the unemployment and inflation rates, and it's what politicians have in mind when they ask, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" Well, the misery index is the highest it's been since George Bush's father became president, seventeen years ago.
When it comes to feeling the misery index, however, you don't go to the economists or the politicians. You go to where regular people live. And that's what we have been doing on this broadcast for months now. We've seen how the mortgage crisis has devastated neighborhoods in Cleveland, how workers in Los Angeles are scrambling for a living wage, and how gas and food prices are choking the ability of food pantries to stave off hunger here in metropolitan New York.
This week, we go to the city of the hour - Denver, the site of the Democratic National Convention. Nearly 75,000 people will gather in the Mile High City as Barack Obama makes history by becoming the first African American to be nominated by a major party for president.
But outside the convention center doors, history of a different, more prosaic sort is being made. This year oil hit a record high - $147 a barrel when last year, it was less than half that - around $68. A loaf of bread is up 14% from last year, a dozen eggs is up 33%, and pizza makers have seen the cost of their cheese soar from $1.30 to $1.76. Flour used to make the dough has tripled in price. As these prices soar, the value of homes is sinking. One in three home buyers since 2003 now owe more than their property's estimated worth. Not only has home equity plummeted, so has the value of other holdings, like stocks and bonds and pensions, the investments families count on as a cushion during hard times.
So America's middle class, our "fearful families" as some people call them, is taking it on the chin. The history-making nominations aside, all the rhetoric from all the speakers at next week's Democratic Convention will be so much hot air above the Rockies unless the party comes to grip with how people are living and hurting today.
Just imagine what might happen if instead of going to all the shindigs being paid for by all the wealthy donors and corporations next week, the Democratic faithful - and their candidates - spread out across Denver's neighbors, and listened to people caught in the big squeeze. That's what our producer Betsy Rate and correspondent Rick Karr did just the other day.
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bigurn1 year, 4 months ago
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I suspect this would start a beneficial discussion into what constitutes "misery" and how any individual might improve his/her "misery index". How would we start? What are things that can be done (if anything) to alleviate the "misery" in the land?
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markmawn21 year, 4 months ago
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One in 20 does put mre of a face on the issue. 5% sounds cold. It is more liekly that from 20 people I know, 3 or 4 would be either unemployed, or only able to work part time. 10-12 more of them would be contractors or temps, and at least 8 of those would prefer full-time with benefits.
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markmawn21 year, 4 months ago
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Apparently she is drawing IN more industry. Go to the Michigan Governor site. It's called backsourcing. When America is the cheap labor option, and workers are desperate, and Unions are all but a memory, then Americans become the new Mexicans. How soon until we start earning Pesos?
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Lurch1 year, 4 months ago
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If you want to read something scary, read about the underemployment rate, which is a measure of how many people are only partially employed or employed below their capabilities and skill level. These are the programmers, engineers, or other who were laid off at some point and then were only able to find work say as a waiter for example. This has been estimated to be about 25%.
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As McCain`s buddies in the corporate world continue to shift jobs overseas, the underemployment continues to rise with no end in sight.
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Charlson1 year, 4 months ago
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"Jefferson County's annual median household income is just over fifty-seven thousand dollars, which makes it part of the most affluent Congressional district in Colorado."
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$57,000 is the median household income in one of the most affluent Congressional district in Colorado and McCain puts the rich at 5 million or more? Now who is truly the one out of touch with the common citizen? -
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buckncindykill1 year, 4 months ago
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buckncindykill1 year, 4 months ago
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I'm constantly told how relative things are. I mean someone else's misery produces gain for someone else right? If their misery effects me, what do you want me to do? Tell them I'll vote for Obama to make it all better? I personally don't know anyone that's in misery, or in such dire straits.
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Lurch1 year, 4 months ago
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That would make Moyers the polar opposite of 90% of the msm. Which is a good thing.
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> I don't know about you all, but I got a nice raise this year!
My firm laid off over 10% of our work force this year. No raises for anybody but the executives.
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bigurn1 year, 4 months ago
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What i see in a lot of people I talk to is a lack of understanding between needs and wants. For example, I work with the needy. They ask for help with electrical bills, gas bills, etc., and we provide it. Predominantly, they have cable and cell phones and don't imagine giving these things up to pay their gas bill in the winter.
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I wonder if a misunderstanding between needs and wants contributes to misery. And I wonder where the misunderstanding could be coming from. Certainly there is a large contribution from the commercialization of nearly everything. But there is also a personal responsibility component that I think is at least as responsible.
The reduction in the notion of personal responsibility seems to be growing in this country, without deference to class, color or background. If we were to solve this we might be able to improve the "misery" index because values would change. -
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simonsez1 year, 4 months ago
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Nothing is going to happen in Denver or St Paul that will make much difference.
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Government creates problems ... they don't solve them. The best thing is that they do nothing negative and get out of the way and let the country get back to optimism and growth. -
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Harbeas1 year, 4 months ago
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I have to laugh at the article's comment on wage stagnation. We have wage reductions and eliminations. Underemployment is another key phrase.
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We have a very serious situation here and neither of the main parties have a solution other than the same old same old. We have too many companies downsizing and moving their operations overseas. They are forcing huge wage cuts on the employees and yet the CEO's are still being paid tens of millions of dollars. Top that off with the speculator caused huge increase in oil and we have a totally unacceptable situation. Our do nothing congress says lets drill for more oil and tax the oil companies profits. Those two moves will not solve our problem! We need to elect an entirely new kind of politician that puts public service above his/her own personal agenda.-
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Lurch1 year, 4 months ago
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Not true. For one, nobody has lowered taxes on the middle class for decades.
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The $300 you got from Bush was more than made up for by the thousands of dollars he added to your state and federal taxes every year for the rest of your life.
No, most economics agree that the best way to boost the economy and create jobs is to give the lowest on the totem pole extra money. The Bush/McCain (new McCain I mean) policy of rewarding wealth instead of work is that absolute worst thing you can do.
The most efficient use of a dollar in our economy is one given to those on welfare or the working poor who are barely making it. These people are the ones who will use the money locally and immediately. The richer one is, the more likely one is to use it abroad or take time to use it, thereby having zero positive affect or having a very delayed affect on the US economy.-
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Charlson1 year, 4 months ago
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"Not true. For one, nobody has lowered taxes on the middle class for decades.The $300 you got from Bush was more than made up for by the thousands of dollars he added to your state and federal taxes every year for the rest of your life."
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Property taxes have gone up while the housing market is going in the crapper in my area.
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